The Reckoning
by Mountain King
Summary: Former Jedi Apprentice Ahsoka Tano goes searching for a lost Jedi Master and learns a terrible truth.


The Reckoning  
Part I  
For Those That Are Left

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Authors note:-

This isn't going to happen in the show Star Wars Rebels. This really isn't going to happen, neither this or the next chapter. Because of that I'm writing it here. I'm sorry but I need to get this out of my system.

I loved the first season of Rebels and went back to watch the Clone Wars cartoon. Thanks to these new shows I can hold my head up high and say I love Star Wars again. This story and its partner (coming soon if I can get around to it) are my thank you for that. Please enjoy

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Disclaimer:

I don't own Star Wars. For now thats the monolithic entity known as disney, but a long time ago it was created by George Lucas.

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Ahsoka looked out over the Jundland Wastes as they sped past. She remembered the sands of Tatooine. Hiking over the near endless dunes, carrying Jabba's baby all those years ago. During the war. Before it all fell apart.

'Here we come, just up ahead.' The sandy haired young man said cheerfully as he cut the old speeders thrusters and let it glide on repulserlifts. He was pointing at a sun-bleached shack pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The only sign it was inhabited was the tiny moisture tower off to one side pulling down the sparse clouds.

She should have been worried by the fact that without thrusters they were out of control, but the easy way he had flown told her the boy would be far happier at the seat of a smugglers freighter than slouching around a moisture farm. Sure enough their momentum carried them almost to the door. If you could call the shallow pit and old curtain a door.

'Ben! Old Ben are you in there?' The boy called out. After a moment the curtain was pulled to one side and out stepped an old man. At first the former Padawan didn't recognise him, gone was the legendary Jedi General, wise beyond his years. In his place was an grey haired human that looked like he was waiting out the near end to his life.

'Yes I am, what brings you out this far past the dune sea my boy?' he glanced at her in the passenger seat. 'Ahsoka?' He asked blinking after shading his eyes from the bright suns.

'Master Kenobi.' She said in awe before she caught herself He didn't just look old, but tired. It was as if the cruel suns of this desert world had baked away the legend she knew.

'Yeah, that's what she called you back at the space port.' the boy grinned. 'I didn't know you taught anything Ben.'

'It was a long time ago, another life.' He admitted. Even without accessing the Force Ahsoka could feel the waves of regret coming of from him.

Getting out of the Speeder she picked up her pack. 'Thank you, young master.' she said to the boy, trying to cover up her mistake.

'Any excuse to have a drive.' he shrugged. 'I could stick around, give you a ride back to the spaceport when you're done here.' he sounded almost hopeful.

'You best get home to your Aunt and Uncle.' Kenobi disagreed. 'It's near dark and the Sandpeople are hunting this season. Ahsoka can stay here tonight, I'll arrange something in the morning. Besides you've got better things to do than listen to an old man like me tell boring stories.'

Ahsoka offered him a smile. 'Thank you, again. For the offer. It was very thoughtful.'

He sighed at Kenobi; 'I guess your right. If I don't at least pretend to check the 'vaporators my uncle won't let me hear the end of it.'

'Wisdom comes to us all, eventually.' The former Jedi Master said with a brief flash of the man Ahsoka knew and she at last had hope this journey wasn't for nothing.

With a hum the thrusters on the speeder reactivated. 'I guess.' he laughed back. 'It was nice meeting you.'

'And you.' She said loud enough for him to hear as he flew away, leaving the two former Jedi.

'Well, you better come in.' Kenobi said after a moment. 'I know how you togruta hate the heat.'

'Yes Master.' She responded automatically with a slight bow before catching herself. 'I'm sorry, it's just…' She didn't know how to say what she was feeling at that moment.

'It's difficult I know, but I am no longer a Master of the Jedi way. Please.' Inside was a lot cooler. It looked lived in, but even though he claimed to have set aside the Jedi ways there was a sense of order here. A neatness and structure that was still lived in and comfortable. In short they were just like a Jedi's quarters in the old temple. 'How did you find me?' he asked, walking past her to a cupboard and pulling out an earthenware mug.

'Senator Organa. I've been working with him on something. Something important.' She admitted. 'Now we need your help General.'

'I am no more a General today than I am a Jedi. Why would you need my help?' he offered her the mug, now filled with water.

'The Empire, it's evil!' She said with absolute conviction. 'Worlds across the Rim are being enslaved. Across the galaxy non-humans are being removed from positions of authority on their own worlds. Replaced by appointed Governors and Moffs. Whole systems have been arrested on fictional charges and sentenced to slavery on mass.' She told him earnestly.

'Hasn't there been an out cry from the public?'

'News networks and information is tightly controlled, but I've seen what is happening first hand. The colony I was living on was destroyed when a young girl there refused to… Service the new governor. The story's the same across the Galaxy, and it's spreading.'

'The courts?' He asked carefully.

'Don't exist anymore. Emperor Palpatine has decreed that his word is the word of the people, as guided by the Senate. A Senate that is nothing more than a collection of sycophants and cowards. Those that have opposed the Emperor openly are either executed as traitors, or meet with very public accidents.'

Kenobi sighed and sat down, stroking his beard thoughtfully. 'Sounds hopeless. What can a small group of idealists and one retired General do against a galaxy gone mad?'

'The galaxy hasn't gone mad, Palpatine has. At first I thought it was just power, but there's something more. I know that now. A Sith lord.'

'Palpatine.'

'I think he's being influenced, maybe even controlled by…

'No.' Kenobi shook his head. 'Palpatine is a Sith Lord, his was the hand behind Count Dooku. He trained Maul.'

Ahsoka felt as if someone had shot her with a blaster on stun. 'What?'

'The Clone Wars were his design. His creation. Through them he gained all the power he needed to wipe out the Jedi and forge a Sith Empire. The evil you see now is but the beginning. I have to ask again What do you think I can do to stop it?'

It took her a moment to gather herself. 'We're forming a rebellion.' she said, more certain than ever it was necessary. 'Those few you mentioned, we're growing. We're going to fight back, stop him and his new apprentice.'

'Between them they control an army the likes of which this Galaxy has never seen before.' he warned her. 'In time hope will emerge. Until then we must keep what is left of the Jedi secret.'

'I… Can't accept that. I can't do nothing. There are others that feel the same. We need you, we need a Jedi Master to lead us.' she told him

Again Kenobi shook his head. 'The Jedi of old lead us to this place, blindly dancing to the Emperor's tune. It is right that we are no more. It is time for someone new.' He stood up. 'Luke, the boy that brought you here. What was your impression of him?'

Ahsoka blinked, not seeing what her former teacher was getting at. 'Young. A good pilot. Curious. Intelligent. Good hearted, but frustrated. He has potential, once he grows up. Why are you…?'

'And the Force?'

She thought back and it hit her with a shock. 'Strong. He is strong in the Force, or will be with training.'

'Remind you of anyone?'

'No, I don't…'

'His father. I made him a promise, all the mistakes I made with him I would make right with Luke. I have sensed it Ahsoka. Luke is the hope for the future, but he is too young. We have to give him a chance to mature.'

'His father, Anakin.' Ahsoka whispered. She could see it now. Why she had trusted him the moment he had promised to show her the way here, to this hut in the middle of nowhere. She'd sensed it then, even if she hadn't realised it. 'Padme, his mother was Padme. I knew they cared for each other, but I never.'

'They married in secret at the start of the Clone Wars. Artoo has a holo of the ceremony. He showed it to me after Luke was born.' Kenobi chuckled. 'From what I understand the droids were their wedding gifts to each other!'

'Master Anakin truly is dead then.' She admitted sadly, knowing that he would never have abandoned his son.

'Yes, he fell at the end of the War to a Sith known as Darth Vader.'

Ahsoka took a breath and calmed herself. 'We've met.' She said keeping the anger, the dark side, in check.

'Impossible. I killed him.' Kenobi said quickly.

Ahsoka looked at her former master, she could feel something through the Force, something coming from him she couldn't understand. 'No. A few days ago I encountered a Sith Lord. He was a brilliant pilot, shot down a frigate and a whole squad of intercepters single handed. Before that he fought two of my friends, nearly killed them. My sources say his name was Darth Vader.'

Kenobi looked at her with a expression that should have given her nightmares. 'Describe him.'

'I never saw him myself. Young Ezra said he was dressed head to toe in some sort of black armour, with some sort of respirator. They said he was incredibly strong and resilient. They dropped a walker on him and he shrugged it off.'

'No, no, no. It's not possible!' He turned away staring at the wall of his hut. 'The Force, can you describe him through the Force?'

She shuddered, whether from the memory or the tone in his voice she couldn't tell. 'When I faced Ventress during the War I felt the Dark Side in her. It was cold, bitter. But he was different. He was so cold he burned. Full of hate. Hate, anger and self loathing like nothing I ever felt or imagined before. But under that there was something more. Pain. Pain of the soul as well as the body. When I felt that it overwhelmed me. I fainted.'

'Oh. What have I done?' Kenobi said in a hollow voice.

'What's wrong?'

He took a deep breath as he walked slowly to a trunk off to one side. 'When Anakin fell, Vader struck Padme with a mortal blow. I tried to convince him to turn away from the Dark Side, but it's grip on him was too strong. We fought on Mustafar, around it's lava pits. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Eventually I got the high ground, he pressed and I… I dismembered him. What was left caught fire on the shore of the sea of molten rock. I left him there, screaming as I went to help Padme. The only thing of his I took was this.' From inside the trunk he pulled out a lightsaber

A very familiar lightsaber.

Ahsoka looked at it as if it was an armed thermal detonator ready to explode. She knew who had built it, she'd seen it so many times it was almost as recognisable as her own. 'He fell, to the Dark Side.' she choked out.

'On her deathbed, giving birth to Luke, Padme told me there was still good in him. I didn't have the heart to tell her he was dead. He had to be dead.'

'Maybe he is. Maybe it's another Vader?' The idea that her former mentor and best friend was the twisted monster she had felt was almost too much.

'I wish it was, but the hate. It's what I felt then, it's what you felt now. It's him. Palpatine must have recovered what was left. Rebuilt him into the parody of life your friends met. Everything that was Anakin Skywalker is long dead. Burnt away by the Dark Side.'

'How can we fight something like that?' she shuddered

Kenobi pulled himself straight 'Trust in the Force Ahsoka. Luke could still become the Jedi I believe him to be. Who knows Padme might even have been right about him.'

'I felt what he has become Master. I don't think she was.'

'We have to have faith Ahsoka, faith in the Force.' He sounded desperate, but still confident. As terrible as the revelations were he still believed he was taking the right action. 'The alternative doesn't bare thinking about.'

They sat in silence for some time. It could have been minutes, it could have been days, Ahsoka couldn't tell. The news that her old master lived, but what he had become, it was terrifying. It was almost too much to take.

Eventually Kenobi broke the terrible silence. 'I can't join your rebellion Ahsoka. Now more than ever I know I must be here. I must watch over and protect Luke. He is in more danger than ever.'

Ahsoka though had her own plans. 'I understand Master. You're right, but I must do what I can to fight. The Rebellion must continue, of that I am more sure than ever.' More importantly she knew the only way to do that would be to face Vader.

End Part I


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